Schwab Network · Nov 9, 2026 · 28m · 22m saved
With Jay Chaudhry, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Zscaler
Photo: BluBayou, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons
Zscaler laid out a path from $3.8 billion of annual recurring revenue (ARR) to $10 billion by fiscal 2031 at its investor day, yet its shares have lagged Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike this year. Jay Chaudhry, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Zscaler, told Marley Kayden on Schwab Network's Market Overtime that the gap was the company's to close, not the investors' fault.
Firewalls and VPNs connect every machine on a network to every other one. Zscaler's model connects only the parties that need to talk, and Jay argues AI makes that difference larger.
"Zero trust, the architecture we pioneered, which is the opposite of firewalls and VPN, is becoming more and more critical, more and more crucial in this world of AI." — Jay Chaudhry
Jay founded Zscaler and has taken its zero-trust approach into more than half of the Fortune 500.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 28 minutes of audio, 6 minutes of reading.
Here are the 9 arguments that matter.
Key Takeaways
Jay does not manage to the stock and expects Zscaler to beat its own targets
One infected branch machine can compromise a whole network built on firewalls
Frontier AI models let any user do what only sophisticated hackers could
AI agents will replace users as the weakest link, because they work at machine speed
No single hyperscaler can secure data spread across dozens of apps and several clouds
Tuck-in acquisitions cut product timelines from 9 or 12 months to 3
70% of recent AI-security deals also included data security
1. Not Managing to the Stock
Jay took responsibility for the valuation gap rather than blaming investors. Zscaler's post-earnings sell-offs ran for five straight quarters, and only reversed after the investor day set out the whole platform: the legacy business plus newer lines such as AI security and a cloud-connectivity product for branch offices.
Jay says the stock follows the product and the customers, not the other way around
"I don't really focus on the stock. I focus on making sure we build the best innovative solutions and take care of customers, then the market takes care of itself." — Jay Chaudhry
He expects Zscaler to beat the targets it set out, including $10 billion of ARR by fiscal 2031.
